Little Red's Guardian
by TalaAzar
Summary: "Can't you see me?" Another twist of the knife. No one could see her, she didn't matter. It was a taunt that was trying to bring her down. Tears streamed down the Hood's face as she realized that it was all working. She wanted this to be over. To just be gone. (T for injury)
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: Some changes have been made to the story due to new ideas I incorporated into it. Thanks for you patience and I hope you can enjoy the story.**_

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 _You really couldn't have found a better place to fight the Boogeyman than a crowed forest, right before nightfall Red?_ Was a frantic, random thought from a red-hooded girl as she kept attacking and dodging Pitch Black. _Oh, right,_ she answered herself. _Because he was going as fast as he could to where the Guardians, the last child that believed in them, and Frosty were, so he could flat-out crush them. That's a_ little _important._

Springing out from behind a tree, Red swung her ax at Pitch, and he gave a satisfying yelp as he got out of the way. She smirked. It was a small victory, but one she could build on.

She tried a backhanded swing at his knees, but he caught the strike with the staff of his curved blade.

"Why are you even helping the Guardians?" he asked as though he hadn't sounded like a little girl a moment before. "It's not like you're one of them." His snide comment was accompanied by a small gesture of his hand.

Red was suddenly knocked to the side and onto the ground as a nightmare ran into her. _Cheater,_ she hissed to herself as she got back to her knees, her ax coming down on the stallion before whirling back to Pitch. "Because there're as close to a family as I've got. And I'm going to help them," she shot back with some heat.

The shadowy figure chuckled as she jumped to the side as to not get cleaved in two. "Seems to me you must've failed to do that in the past. Seeing you're here that is." He looked around briefly, looking somewhat surprised. "I'm impressed you've held out this long. Of course whatever things that are in the forest don't like me much, and I guess at least some of them must have a soft spot for you to hold back my nightmares."

Red paused, confused. "What are you talking about?" _Y_ _ou must've failed to do that in the past?- What's all that supposed to mean? And that something in the forest is helping me again?_ Red launched herself at the Nightmare King, but her moment of pause was one too many, as he slipped into the shadows before she got there. She whirled back around, not sure if she was more frustrated at herself or him. He was probably long gone by now-

"So you really don't know..." His voice surprised Red. He was still hear?

He started to chuckle before it turned into a laugh. The circling, shadowed copies of himself seemed to look up at the moon. "Seems like you set yourself up some trouble with whatever stunt you pulled and Frost and her." The shadows gestured to Red with a sigh of pleasure. "Seems like she'll end up the same way as him i'd wager. Not letting them know."

Red's heart clenched, shaken by whatever it was he was talking about. "What do you mean 'not letting us know'? And what did you do to Jack Pitch?!" She never stopped moving, trying to find Pitch's face.

"Oh, _I_ didn't do anything. It was your precious Man in the Moon who did it. Do you want to tell her old friend or should I?!" The circle of shadows kept going without pause. "Were you never curious about how you were just _there_ all of sudden? How finding or reaching out to anyone in belief or not was almost impossible? It was because he took you away from all you once loved, your memories, and turned into the puppet you are now."

"No, no he wouldn't do something like that." Red said, but now she was a little unsure. Would he? He'd been there for the past three-hundred years almost, always lighting some way to go by. But then again, I had asked those questions. More than once too, begging him to tell me why. He'd never answered them.

"You had a life ahead of you." His voice echoed almost softly, thought it was gradually getting louder. "You can't be older the fourteen, you're merely a child. He robbed you of your childhood and life to become what? A figment of everyone's imagination, unable to do anything. He destroyed your life. A Guardian is supposed to prevent those kind of things, not cause them. So why should you even trust the Guardians at all?!"

"Shut. Up!" Red hurled her ax in the direction where she thought she'd seen his hand. It would've lodged into his shoulder, if he hadn't turned into shadows and hid like a coward. Red ran toward back for the ax as hard as she could. Leaving herself defenseless to Pitch was the last thing she wanted to do.

Ripping it out of the tree, she turned...just in time for her right hand to meet the black arrow Pitch shot.

Biting back a cry, Red dropped the ax and clutched her injured wrist. As she watched and before she could think to do anything, the arrow melted into her hand; warping it into a nightmarish black. Something seemed to pulse out of it, negative and dark, and Red felt like it was draining her. Another pulse, the world swayed, and she found herself on her knees, just able to keep herself steady.

Echoes and whispers started teasing at her ears. Screwing her eyes shut and shaking her head, Red tried to make them go away. That was the wrong thing to do, because she then found herself on the ground, on her elbows and barley holding her head up

"What's happening to me?" Her voice surprised her at how empty and defeated it sounded. _What did you do?_

Pitch languidly strolled out to where Red could see him, an amused smile on his face. He knelt down, and cupped her face in his hand. Red flinched. It was so cold it burned.

"Don't you know?" He smiled, like he was explaining something to child who didn't hear the first time. "You're turning into a nightmare yourself." He let go, and stood up, straightening himself.

The black of Red's hand had gone past her wrist, and quickly twisted up her arm like a living thing and she forced the bile and horror that rose up her throat back down.

"Don't worry about that though, you'll come to terms about who and what the Guardians really are once it's done. Besides, they will all gone by then," he purred as he stepped away.

 _No, no you can't let that happen Red, come on!_ She tried to force herself to get up, to do something, Pitch chuckling at her attempts as he faded away. There were blurs of green from the forest, and a vague image of something large and dark looming over her. But it just turned into blackness. The darkness closed in all around her, and she fell prey to the nightmares.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Some changes have been made to the story due to new ideas I incorporated into it. Thanks for you patience and I hope you can enjoy the story.**_

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Red thought she knew what nightmares where, what they did, what they could do. She thought that maybe she could keep them from turning her into one of them, but she hadn't known that they could be like this; an actual force that crept though her like a poison, painful and full of anger and fear and it was there and _real_.

They were everywhere. She couldn't get away. They clawed at her, they wouldn't let her forget those fears and every time she had failed, hurt somebody. She wasn't strong she wasn't strong at all, how did she ever think she could stand up to the dictator of Fear himself when she had so much of it? It was filling her, suffocating her, turning her into a monster and she couldn't. Get. OUT!

Screaming, flailing, thrashing around didn't do anything. They just came in closer, ready to finish the last little struggles in her off, and Red was sure that this time it was going to happen. How could she hold on when there was nothing left to hold onto? There was just nothing left...

 _(Back at the battle, Jamie's hand hit the nightmare-sand, turning it gold)_

Screams. Red thought they were coming from her, or some other trick the blackness was playing on her, but she realized they weren't. They were coming from the nightmares; unearthly, harsh, and grating as something kept striking them, bursting them into nothing.

 _Wait,_ Red stumbled to her feet to see what was actually happening.

 _They aren't turning into nothing,_ she realized. _They were turning into...dreamsand?_

Now that she wasn't having to struggle for her very sanity, she started noticing the thin but bright gold whips slashing at the creatures. But Sandy had been completely destroyed by Pitch...hadn't he? How could this be real? She felt just as confused as before. _What was going on? How was all this happening?_

 _(The Baby Tooth Fairies started touching the tooth boxes, helping the children remember. One of them touched one with a picture of a girl with long brown hair and bangs, brown eyes, and a certain trio of freckles under her right eye)_

"Ngh!" Red clutched at her head as she stumbled backwards. Everything was starting to split, to shatter; turning into diamonds and turning over with something behind them. Pain started building up at the back of her mind, but it was weird. It hurt, but almost like it was trying to do something good when everything else was so terrible. It almost felt like is was calling her...home.

Red let them turn over, and pain show her what it was.

Next thing she knew, pictures were flashing before her eyes; things that she had no idea why they would matter, what they meant. Until she saw a spiky, brown haired boy on the ice across from a girl will long brown hair. That picture, that scene... Everything started to slam into place, as if the last heavy object had been pushed out of the way, the last wall broken down.

 _Memories_ , she realized, turning around, shaking her head, almost unable to believe that's what it was as they continued to flash by. They were all memories. This, that girl, was _her_. Before she was Red Riding Hood, before then when she was Roux. Named for the red hair she used to have as a toddler before it turned brown. The youngest of a family of three who moved from Europe to a Pennsylvania colony, younger sister to her brother who died to save her from the ice on a lake when she was eleven. Her brother Jack, who only a short while after his death tales of the mischievous but protecting and warning Spirit of Winter started. Jack, who looked and acted and was just like Jack Frost.

She groaned. How could she not have seen it? How could she have forgotten?

Her head was spinning with guilt and shame in herself as her life kept flashing before her eyes: After Jack's death moving to Minnesota to start over from the superstitions from the other villagers in Pennsylvania; settling in a village outside a forest that had a logging camp deep inside it; making friends with a wolf pup; her mother meeting and falling in love with a man from the lumber yard with a pair of twins; them all becoming family and one coming on the way; along with a red cloak made by her mother and name to match for her visits into woods for herbs for the "grandma" of the village and wood, along with going to the lumberyard to give lunches to her Dad. And after all this was when her biggest question was answered, what Pitch had taunted her about and what she desperately wanted to know: why she was here, and how she had come to be Red Riding Hood~

 _It was autumn, and the time of the harvest was coming to a close, while the Harvest Festival was coming up. Which for Roux meant that work at the lumberyard was almost over and Dad would be coming and staying home soon, along with gathering last minute herb seasonings for foods and medicine at "Granny's" (more or less the village's old crazy lady) orders, as well as a few other unlucky teens._

 _So Roux, playfully bemoaning about her task to her step-siblings and ma, swept on her red cloak and snatched a basket to gather the herbs she was assigned to find. Swinging the door closed, she also grabbed the crossbow by the door before she went out._

 _It was a present made and given to her by her step-father (or Papa as she called him) from the year or two before when she started bringing him lunch through the forest. As he had always said along with her mom's warnings of always being on the path, "Don't go through_ _the woods without something as a weapon."_

 _And so, properly equipped for her task and with protection, she set of into forest to get the things for Granny. She'd followed the path, true to her mothers wishes the entire time she was out there since morning. By the time evening started to come down and it was time to go, she had most of her basket filled with the needed herbs, mushrooms, and other such things from the forest._

 _She'd gone everywhere to get them all, including near and away from the village and lumberyard and into the wilder spots that made her glad to have the crossbow at her side. Those places also made her wish that Tar was there, but he was better suited for the yard than a small home with kids; Tar of course was the wolf she'd befriended._

 _She was on her way back home through the twisting trails as such, proud and excited to get back, when she heard screams._

 _Stopped in her tracks, the girl listened hard and worked on loading the crossbow. She heard it again, to the right, into the woods and off the trail. They were small and high, telling her that what they were coming from were kids._

 _The basket fell to the ground, and Roux was plunging into the forest, jumping, running, and leaping to reach the shouts. The trees started to thin out, and she slowed._

 _Ahead was a clearing with a large oak close to the center. Two kids that looked like siblings were there, some small branches and pieces of wood along with an ax at their feet. Five wolves had surrounded them and were now closing in on the duo, snarling and yelping enough to rival saws from the yard._

 _The wolves were thinner than they should, and she could see that a few of them had patches of fur missing and foam gathered and stuck around their mouths. So they were sick and or starving, and managed to catch a few kids that had strayed from the trail._

 _Roux brought the crossbow to her shoulder. There was no way she was going to abandon some kids to wolves, and she might have a chance since the wolves would be hampered from hunger._

 _The wolves got impatient and advanced. She shot one bolt at the snapping, frothing wolf that was closest to the two kids._

 _Striking the wolf at the base of its neck, it dropped dead with hardly a whine. But Roux was already working on reloading her crossbow. She would only have a chance to load it one more time at best before she would have to-_

 _She screamed as something slammed into her, sharp teeth at her shoulder and hot diseased breath wafting into her ear._

 _The crossbow clattered to the ground as she thrashed under the wolf, trying to get away from the beast. Her free arm went flailing to grasp the weapon again. The bolt was by some miracle still in there, ready to be released. Her hand finally manged to get it, and she swung it toward the creature before pulling the trigger._

 _It shot in between the ribs, and the wolf released her while she scrambled to get away. It went into its death throws, crushing her crossbow beneath it before she had the chance to pull it away._

 _Staggering to her feet, Roux raced to the kids inside the clearing, ignoring her dizzy, tilting vision and fire in and under her shoulder._

 _Two of the last wolves were at the edge of the forest across from her, nervous, but the other had driven the kids up the oak tree in the area. The little boy was safe in the higher branches, but the girl was struggling; the wolf's teeth were locked firmly on the girl's boot, trying to drag her down. The ax Roux had seen on the ground was still there, and she picked it up, the handle turning slick._

 _The wolf yelped as the blunt end of the ax head hit its side, and it ran. Then Roux was there, boosting the girl as best she could with her good arm and shoulder higher into the tree. The girl just managed to get up there before Roux was back on the ground, wolf at her leg._

 _She kicked at it with her free foot, and grasped for the ax handle just out of reach. Pain once more and screams, from her and the siblings in the tree._ _The wolf was back, claws at her already wounded shoulder and going at her back with hot breath coming down on her neck, teeth piercing skin. Howls told her the other two were coming in, but all she could think was that the kids in the tree would be safe, and hoping that her family would be okay. More than anything, she was hoping her sacrifice right now wouldn't make Jack's be in vain._

 _She heard a shout, a loud_ thwap! _, and dead weight suddenly collapsing on top of her._ _Turning as best she could with the sudden weight, she tried to see who could have taken the shot. Papa._

 _Scarred face set, wood peels and dust still all over his clothes, he was there: His handcrafted and powerful crossbow on the ground, its one-bolt opportunity spent, while his own, large ax from the yard went to work on the last two wolves left. Soon, they were down and dead as well._ _Her dad then rushed over to her and the kids._

 _"It's alright," he said to the siblings. "you're safe now. I'm going to help you down in just a moment."_

 _He bent down by Roux, and murmured something about needing to get the thing off her and keeping still. She didn't quite catch it._

 _Locking his hands around the stiff jaws that still gripped her neck, he pried them apart. She hissed as he did it, but nothing else made it out. She did the same as he dug the claws out of her shoulder before he shoved the beast off of her._

 _Then, tenderly and carefully as a father could, brought her up from the ground and against the tree, but it still hurt nonetheless. It was almost funny how during the fight she really only felt pain briefly right after the bite or claws, but now it seemed everything was a hundred times more sensitive and all of it hurting._

 _Papa wiped his hands on the dying grass before bring them to his face, frowning. Turning back to the wolf, he wiped them there on its coat before he turned to the kids in the tree; leaving the places red._

 _Roux looked at herself, and saw just how much of it he had gotten from her rather than the wolves; her clothes were soaked in blood, browning in some places where it had started to dry, while dark and shining red from the wounds on her leg and shoulder, and most likely was from her neck and back too. It was a stark contrast to her skin, now a lot paler than it was before._

 _Seeing the kids coming down from the oak with the help of her dad, she tugged her cloak over the worst looking places so they wouldn't have to see it. Her pa and the kids were at the base of the tree next to her, and Papa was holding the young girl on his knee, unlacing her shredded boot to asses the damage. The little boy, unharmed, was looking over the woodcutter's shoulder, eyes locked on his sister's foot._

 _While the girl's eyes had been glazed in pain and fear as Roux's father brought her down and now as he worked on her leg, the boy's eyes were wide and clear, and full of_ that _fear. Not the frantic and panicked fear someone who's protecting another has like his sister had been, but that deep-running fear, that terror, that comes from being helpless and seeing all the horror of what happened. The same kind of fear Roux had seen on her own face reflected back to her from that frozen, icy lake as she watched her brother sink in its depths, struggles slowing and ice growing on his skin as it turned blue._

 _Snapping back to the present, Roux saw the little boy's face again instead of Jack's or her own. T_ _he little boy finally looked away from his sister, eyes shut tight and tears leaking out and down his face._ _His sister's foot was now bear and Papa talking to her and still keeping her steady with one hand while the other tried to find the boy's. But the boy had stepped back, trying in what Roux knew was to keep from being in anyone else's way, to keep from having anyone else get hurt because of him._

 _Acting almost without realizing, she reached out with her good arm and pulled him into a hug. The little boy was stiff for a moment, before he finally broke: sobs finally tearing out of him as he searched for comfort, which Roux gave to him wholeheartedly._

 _Someone spoke, and they both broke away. The girl was leaning against the tree to help support her, and her brother came flying at her for a hug, and they both went down in those grateful kind of tears and laughs. For Roux, Papa just came to her slowly, face looking proud and devastated at the same time as he settled down next to her._

 _"The girl will be alright. The wolf twisted her ankle up and there are some gashes and bite marks, but nothing that can't heal." His eyes strayed back to Roux, and this time she could see tears as well. She opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it._

 _"If I had just been here sooner," His voice was quiet, but harsh and ruthless, completely turned on himself. "If I had been faster in coming home then I could've helped, I could have saved y-" Here his voice gave out, and he looked at Roux, at her too-pale skin and her wounds, and finally to her face._

 _"I'm sorry." He picked her up again and into a hug, holding her as close to him as he could._

 _Roux hugged him back. "It'll be okay." She could feel Papa stiffen, but she went on. "You, Mom, the twins and the baby, all of you can be okay."_

 _She pushed herself away and smiled at him. "Besides, it's not like I'll really be gone. I'll be watching over you always, so you doing have to be sad." Now she was tearing up too. "And to top it all off I'll get to see Jack again!'' She laughed a little, still crying and Papa did the same for a bit._

 _"I'll have to take the siblings back first. The girl's foot is bad enough that she won't be able to walk, and the boy has been through enough that he'll probably have to be carried too. And of course-"_

 _"-you d_ _on't go through_ _the woods without something as a weapon,"_ _Roux finished for him. He didn't look happy about it, but he nodded._

 _"I'll come back for you," he said, and he clutched her in a hug once more._

 _"See you at the festival?" she asked, tears coming again. All he did was nod, not trusting himself enough to speak. She held unto him as best she could with her numbing arms._ _Something fell down, and she looked up._

 _Snow. Falling, and beautiful. She watched it, and something caught her eye. Brown and white, a teenage boy crouched in a tree. He looked sad, along with looking disappointed and frustrated at himself. His eyes were shining, and the wind ruffled that spiky hair she would recognize anywhere, white or brown._

 _"Jack Frost," she whispered, remembering the tales and stories of him, along with her brother. She smirked. How did she not see that sooner? Of course Jack would be a mischievous spirit of winter, always there for the good times and the bad. There in a way that could make a difference around the world, just as he'd always wanted to be. The snow fell harder, and she looked up at it with a smile and laughter as it made her eyes flutter, then close, the world slowly fading away._

 _Everything was dark and, not cold exactly, but hard. She couldn't move or think, but then something small and insistent seemed to start nudging her. She wasn't even sure what it wanted, but it just wouldn't leave her alone. All she knew is that something in her chest was getting tight as though trying to get something, and there was a pounding, throbbing pain all over that just kept building. It got louder and harder and she wanted it to stop. Finally, she managed to make part of her move, and she was suddenly breathing._

 _Her eyes flew open as she coughed, trying to catch her breath. Above her, a red harvest moon was in the sky, showering her in red-tinged light through the leaves of the tree above her. Bright slivers of the light streaked over the gashes and scars on the girl, seamlessly stitching and healing them back up. A rich red from a time before bled into her hair, while her eyes shifted to the warm tone of a home fire. The girl unconsciously grasped at the worn cloak around her shoulders, and the touch sent a ripple through it, empowering it with a bit of herself without knowing it._

 _She thought she saw something in the trees farther away, maybe a growl too, and she shivered. This new world scared her, and she wasn't even sure who she was supposed to be. Maybe because it was the first thing she saw, or maybe because the light seemed welcoming; but for whatever reason, she looked to the moon. And_ Red _was her answer._

Red, _Roux_ , gasped, suddenly ripped out of the past. She was back at the darkness, the gold sand thin and drifting, and all the memories slowly turning back and closing in on themselves again. Everything was slowly disappearing, shifting to the hard, cold darkness again. Roux was too, seeming to slow and freeze, unable to get out on her own, as the darkness was still in her and there was nothing to get it out.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: Some changes have been made to the story due to new ideas I incorporated into it. Thanks for you patience and I hope you can enjoy the story.**_

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Farther away, the Wind was whistling through the trees. _Free_. Breath still almost couldn't believe it as she went spiraling up into the sky, bursting through the cloud cover before diving back down and continuing racing and playing with the leaves. _She was free_.

And she was making the most of it. She'd only gotten out of that hole in the ground mere hours ago after being being caught and entangled by Pitch's nightmares until she almost couldn't move. Bristling with anger, Breath huffed; currents blowing in all directions. She still couldn't even believe how-

A call. She froze. Her winds had come back, one direction answering with something like a howl, pain, and that thick, creeping presence Nightmares gave. But it seemed, off. Turning in that direction, Breath sent another breeze out there...

There it was again; stronger this time, and there was diffidently something wrong with it and how it felt. She hurried off in that direction, her worry and dread building the closer she got. Fear and fading was what it was. Something that Nightmares weren't capable of, but spirits were. Whirling around the corner she found what it was coming from.

A girl lay curled on the forest floor, a red cloak obscuring most of her body. Breath couldn't see anything that explained the terrible feeling she got, so she swept a gust over the form to blow the cloak off. She froze, paralyzed in shock and maybe horror. Next thing she knew, she was trying to shake the girl awake before remembering that she couldn't really touch anything, as she was essentially wind herself.

Cursing her stupid luck, she started tearing at the cloak. The cloak almost seemed to know what she was trying to do or something else did, because it started to loosen and yank even when her gusts weren't blowing.

Finally she wrenched it free, and Breath took to the air with it fluttering eagerly beside her. Breath then sent currents every which-way to try and see if she could pick up on any of the Guardians; trying to find who was closest. _Any one of them would have a better idea and chance of helping this girl._

The first result that came back was chilly, heavy, and obviously with Frost. Mind made up, Breath went speeding off in the direction of the guardian boy.

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Over in some provience in Canada, the teen Breath was looking for had his own worries and thoughts.

During the flight North had offered him and the other guardians, Jack's experience in Antarctica with his memories started to catch up to him; all the details that he'd been in too much of a rush to notice while going off to save the fantastical world. He guessed he must've accidentally let something slip when Tooth asked about what he'd said to Jamie about how everything would be fine.

" _Wait, you remembered!? How, What...!?_ " she'd shrieked after she caught on to whatever Jack had said. That of course had drawn everyone's attention, which was immediately followed by a flurry of questions and looks from everyone on board.

Quickly realizing that he'd be stuck there for who-knows-how-long if he stayed and also needing time to process it all himself, Jack gave a flustered if somewhat nervous response of needing some time before he bailed the sleigh.

He'd quickly realized after the fact that it'd been a kind of stupid thing to do as it would either 1), lead them to be suspicious or distrustful of him again [with it being so soon after Easter], or 2), cause at least half of them to go after him like a flock of mother hens.

Slapping his hand to his face, he groaned. _Great move there Frost..._ Jack sighed and looked around himself listlessly before he shrugged it off. What was done was done, and he had other things that, at least at the present, where more important.

Tooth's question from earlier had brought up the memory of his sister, Roux, and his brain had been driving him crazy saying that there was something he was missing, something from this second life from the past three-hundred years that was important and connected with it. He couldn't catch it until he saw some girl that looked kind of similar to Roux a too-big red jacket being herded around by someone who was probably their babysitter. It suddenly hit him, and his flight staggered then stopped as he stared at nothing in disbelief.

Red. That little fire-haired dork in a hood that neither she nor him could help but make a contest or game out of everything that would end in both of them doubled over in bruises, giggles, and shouts of either triumph or indignation. Her being the feisty worry-wart and him the cool dare-devil. That was just like how he and Roux were like all that time ago. She, _was_ , Roux. Just with different color hair and eyes like he did and...older.

Jack's brow furrowed, and his grip on the staff tightened as he thought. Red looked like she was fourteen, maybe fifteen, and Roux had only been eleven when he'd gone. What had happened to her for her die only a few years later? Jack tried to think of the first time he'd seen Red and what might have happened, since that day on the lake had been the last time he'd seen her as Roux-

Wait. That wasn't the last time he saw her. A memory from his first few years as Jack Frost came back to him. Of teasing winter into the late autumn air in the northern woods of North America. The wind playful before a slight tremor carried a faint, fleeting sense of danger. Speeding as fast as he could, the wind continued to tell him whispers of what was going on: two kids, wolves closing in, the whistle of a shot, another different girl down, screams and howls and more chaos.

He wasn't anywhere near close enough to the clearing help much, but Jack had swung his staff, shooting out ice and frost in the wild hope that maybe it could buy some time for those against the howls.

Jack was now so close that he could hear what was going on with his own ears instead of the wind: the thud of an ax and the frenzied yelp of a wolf, with its paws running through leaves. Suddenly he could see the wolf as it stopped by the edge of the clearing, and he smiled.

Then it fell as he saw it turn tail and run back. His eyes shot forward and first noticed the kids it the tree struggling to stay in there.

Sending breezes to balance them and then some others to hopefully spook the wolf on the older girl and the other ones. He then grappled a few around him and sent them into the woods were he'd heard footfalls. Heavy ones.

A bolt shot out of the forest, and Jack, noticing it was going too high, gave it a small sliver in ice to weigh it down. It hit true, and he got out of the way by scaling a tree as the man who'd taken the shot took down the other wolves without hurting anyone else like his ice might've.

He didn't look at the girl as he passed her, or as the man helped her, feeling sick. Jack remembered feeling anxious about her. He couldn't tell what the original color of the cloak had been with all the dirt on stuff on it. It might've once been red, but the amount of blood he'd seen on the ground and it made him warily think otherwise. Somehow, he knew that the girl wouldn't make it, and he couldn't stand the thought of looking into the face of someone he'd failed to save. Without his noticing, snow started to fall.

He'd stayed the tree as the man helped the other kids down and cared to the young girl as the dying one comforted the little boy. He watched as the two kids played and as girl and the man talked, though Jack was careful not to make eye contact. They wouldn't see him anyway, so there wasn't any point. Then he heard it. On a little sliver of air that was going against the way the wind was carrying it: _Jack Frost_.

His eyes snapped to the girl in shock. He couldn't have heard that. Nobody saw him, nobody in the real world would know that name...right?

And yet the girl did. The only thing Jack could see between the hood's cowl and the man's bulk was her brown eyes, and even that was far enough away that he couldn't make out any other details, but the fact that she could _see_ him was unmistakable.

He started back hesitantly, almost shaking his head, almost about to smile. Half of him told him it wasn't possible and not to hope it was true, the other ready to explode in shouts of joy and somersaults. The hooded girl looked up at his snow in wonder, and laughed. Weak and small, but it was there. She loved it, and she could _see_ him.

The smile was starting to break though his face when he saw it happen. The girl's eyes were fluttering as snowflakes fell on them, and they weren't as bright as a moment or two ago. Jack suddenly felt like he needed to shout, scream, do something to keep it from happening, to keep her awake, but his throat closed on itself, and he couldn't seem to make himself move. The brown eyes finally closed, and she was gone.

Jack could almost feel himself unlock as he started to shake. _No. No, no, no, that- that can't be it. Why? How could life be so cruel?_ Jack didn't know if he was thinking more on how someone had finally seen him just for it to be taken away an instant later, or that someone who could look at something invisible like it was precious could be taken away so suddenly.

 _Plip._ Jack blinked. He looked down at his arm, at the wet spot that was joined by another, and another on his tunic sleeve. He hadn't realized he'd been crying. He looked back to the girl and the other people below, and could see from the man's shoulders he wasn't the only one. Or by the whine he heard below.

Looking down and back into the forest, Jack could see another wolf. Eyes narrowed, he almost turned it into a block of ice before he realized it had something around its neck. A dusty, shredded, and red-stained bit of cloth. Its fur looked mottled, like part of it was stained. Jack could also see a mangy, lighter colored body underneath it; bigger than the darker wolf on top of it and the other downed wolves in the clearing. Jack almost started crying again as he stumbled from the tree while the canine quieted and stilled. It didn't take long for Jack to put two and two together. The cloth collar, how it'd downed another - the biggest - wolf, and was sad at seeing the hooded girl dead...

It must have belonged to her, or at least knew her. And it had died trying to protect her. Soft blue light glowed from the staff as Jack's knelt down to the wolf, hand tightening on it and eyes shining, as a promise was made.

The snow started to fall in earnest as the winter spirit started to leave, heart broken, mind set on not letting something like this happen again. To be able to protect.

In the present, Jack had shut his eyes tight, warding off the sadness that came with the memory, along with the realization he'd had. He got a sudden, ridiculous urge to laugh and he didn't quite keep it from coming out. The curves life threw at you.

Both he and Roux had lost the other, seen it happen even. Then they were both brought back, and acted like siblings even though neither had had a clue of who the other was until today when he'd gotten his tooth box.

For a moment Jack wondered why Manny hadn't left them know sooner, or why their memories had been taken away in the first place. How was it fair for them to have been in the dark for centuries? Jack's frustration soon left as he thought about the memory he'd just relived, his staff at his side as he flew back into the air. He'd been crushed enough then from the whole experience when it first happened. If he'd known then the the dying girl had been his sister, he probably would've broke.

At any rate, Jack remembered now, and he knew how to help her remember too. All he had to do was find her. And so he would, so she wouldn't have to keep walking in the dark.

As he quickened his speed, little did he know that that was exactly what she was doing right now.

.

After the dark had come back, numbing her, Red could tell she was fading; something that could happen to a spirit if they lost themselves. Usually it happened to those were weren't believed in when they used to be. That happens a lot with monsters under the bed and imaginary friends that their kids grew out of, and that's the risk that comes with the power having believers gives. Most risk it though because otherwise its just so lonely that existence simply doesn't seem worth it.

Turns out it also happens when your existence slowly gets taken over, being twisted around until nothing but a husk of the worst of you is left.

She'd actually been fading ever since that arrow cut her, but the searing fears and nightmares had kept her distracted, blindsided to the fact. The dreams and memories that came next had stopped its rampage, giving her some time to recover. But that had only lasted for a little while. Now Red was dealing with a new horror, one where she could see and feel in crystal clarity what was happening to her. She would almost call this worse.

But at least now she could think. Roux knew who she was, and because of that she now she had something more than just herself to fight for. Jack was out there, and she owed him a thank you at the very least, and two life stories - his and her's - if it came down to it. She guessed that whatever had happened to make her remember would've done the same thing for him; and if it hadn't well...they would figure it out together. So she started work her way out again with newfound determination.

Red continued to forge forward, dragging herself out of the mess as it got thicker. Not so much that she couldn't move, but it was definitely getting harder and more frustrating with each step.

Groaning as she shoved off a chunk of darkness that clung to her like a tangle of weeds, Red couldn't help lamenting the fact that the powers she had couldn't be a little more helpful in situations like this: She could find a path to and from just about anywhere and take them at incredible speeds, which was how she got around. Something in forest and wild seemed to see her as a friend. She also had her cloak, which was able to bring warmth and something somewhat like comfort to whoever it was stretched over; including children to some degree, which was the only way she was able to interact with them at all. And it had seemed to always get her out of or protect her in any messy situation she ended up in.

Until now. Now she was in the worst danger of either of her lives, and it had gone dead; hanging lifelessly from her shoulders and dull, nothing like the bright and moving, almost alive thing it usually was. Like it too had abandoned her.

Seriously, why couldn't she have something more obvious, more helpful right now like others did? The Guardians were guardians because they had more and stronger powers and abilities then most - swords or wings, winter or spring, slashing or exploding. Then there were other spirits: Nightlight could literally turn darkness into light. The Leprechaun could get out of anything and warp dimensions from one land or place to another. No one could question Uncle Sam's firepower. And the guys in the Zodiac had little bits of influence and power in just about everything. But she...

She was just a fairytale. A story that everyone was told from the start it wasn't real. A story of a girl that did something that she knew was dangerous, and to learn from her example. All she was to anyone was a lesson they didn't want to listen to. And all she had to prove them wrong was an ax out of her reach, a lost and broken crossbow, a way and friend she didn't know, and a cloak that was supposed to help and protect her while ironically colored blood red.

Red had almost come to a standstill, trembling with the effort off getting out of this nightmare and from those stupid thoughts she hated but couldn't seem to get rid of. Then quickly, as thought scared she would stay lost there forever if she didn't keep moving, Red shook her head and started to stumble her way forward again.

Unbeknownst to Roux as she had pushed and waded through the blackness, small bits of light had started to leak their way into the dreamscape. But Fear was a slippery thing, and it wasn't going to let the little hood go that easily. Slowly it dripped down, curling around her, so slow and subtle that she didn't even notice as it started to poison her thoughts.

As it slowly, carefully, cut off the light.

Now it wasn't forcing them on her, no. Fear didn't work that way. It preyed upon insecurities and little weaknesses that were already there. It just helped bring to the forefront, to light one might say, as to snuff it out.

Red may have won a battle, but she was still in over her head. It was just a question of how long it would take for her to drown.

.


	4. Chapter 4

.

Brisk chills and whirls of frost were left behind as the boy guardian cruised and searched over North America for his red-clad sister. She'd always preferred the forest than anywhere else, as Red or Roux. And he'd always been drawn back to Burgess Pennsylvania or near there, where he'd come from; he was kinda working on the assumption that Red would be the same way.

Right now, he was part-way through the Boreal Forest. He'd dashed around a couple yetis (sent by North no doubt) before he saw something that looked like a vapor; kinda like what you see behind a hot grill. Most people and even spirits would brush it off, but then again, he wasn't most people.

"Wind! Long time no see!" Jack hollered as he flew over. He'd been using the wind for centuries, but that didn't mean he saw her all the time, and it had been some time since he'd seen his friend.

At his shout, she'd turned around. When she saw it was Jack, she booked it toward him. He was, admittedly, surprised at that. Wind was a lot more composed than people expected, and she didn't break that form often. And even when she did, he hadn't seen her this frazzled before.

Stalling in the air and settling on a tree branch, he let her catch up to him. "Are you okay?" he asked, somewhat concerned.

Breath finally came to a stop in front of him, seeming to be huffing, semi-transparent hair splayed everywhere. She didn't grace him with an answer, just mimed grabbing his hand and motioning for him to follow.

The currents tried to whisk him out of the tree and follow her, so Jack got a better grasp in the tree and stayed his ground.

"Hey, Wind, I'm sorry but you're gonna need to tell me what's going on if you want me to follow you." He hooked his staff on a branch above him, anchoring himself better. "I have other things to be doing too. I'm trying to find somebody."

She still didn't give him an answer, either to frustrated or preoccupied to bother. She just turned back to him, trying to get him to follow and looking exasperated at his stubbornness. When he still wouldn't move, she and the blows stopped, her just glaring at him, arms crossed.

Jack tried to talk to her again, but he didn't get the chance. A gale-force wind suddenly knocked him out of the tree, and it sent him rushing after its young mistress. He tried to knock his way out, but they just corralled him back in.

"Wind! Come on! I really do need to find somebody, please!" He shouted over the rushing noise.

She gave gave him a hard, sideways glace that said everything. _That's going to have to wait._

"No, you don't understand. She's my sister!" Her look softened at that, but she continued taking them on ahead.

 _Alright, that's enough_.

With a roar, Jack shot a blast of ice at the torrents and broke out. He made only a little way before the currents turned on him, refusing to let him go further. Frustrated, he turned around to come face to face with an equally furious Wind. _"I'm sorry Frost, but that will have to wait!"_

She blew something into his face, and he yanked it off. "Wh-" he didn't finish. The thing that she'd blown into him was a red cloak, worn from use, familiar. "Red." the word come out with worry and a bit of dread as he saw black sand slide out and off the creases in it. He barely caught Wind's next words.

 _"I really am sorry, but someone else needs you help..."_

"No, they're the same person," He said under his breath, mostly to himself.

Breath wasn't sure what to say to that, so she tugged the breezes around him forward and headed off. Jack followed, racing right behind her, resolve in his eyes. "Sorry for acting like that," he said to her. She shrugged, accepting the apology.

They flew in silence, continuing in the Boreal Forest before Wind dropped toward a clearing, Jack following suit. The breezes died away as Wind stopped by the unconscious girl on the ground, and the feeling of wrongness was clear in the air around her. Jack wasn't sure what he'd been expecting when they would find Red, the only things coming to mind being some hole under a bed like what was in Burgess, and Sandy dying by Pitch's black arrow. As he approached Red himself, he found the second idea was closer.

Her entire right arm and part of her face were the same black as nightmare sand, the skin at the edges gray like Pitch's, and her hair turning inky black. She was in a curled position with her face set in a grimace except for the nightmare part, which was strangely expressionless and hollow. Jack's stomach turned over at the sight, and he struggled to hold in his disgust and anger at the Nightmare King.

He'd heard stories of how at Pitch's peak of strength in the Dark Ages, he'd been so powerful that he could turn people themselves into nightmares; mere empty husks of who they had been to be filled with terror to spread like a plague. At the time, Jack had written them off as stories that had been blown out of proportions. He should've known better; he lived in a world of stories after all. But he guessed he just didn't think such an evil and terrible act could actually be done.

That idea had been shaken when Sandy got hit with the arrow, but he hadn't so much turned into a nightmare as he died and disappeared. Now seeing Red like this, at how there seemed to be an empty, completely different person where the nightmare sand had taken over, there was no doubt in his mind that those stories had been true. And that Pitch, no matter what he pretended to be otherwise, was a monster.

Crouching next to his sister, Jack took a better look at the nightmare sand. He played with the idea that maybe he could get rid of it or out of her with his frost, but quickly dismissed it. His frost had obliterated nightmares, and he didn't want to risk that happening to Red. What he needed was something to turn the nightmare in her to what it used to be.

"Sandy." That was who he needed! Jack remembered how when the little guy got the nightmares, they turned back to dreamsand, instead of just bursting them apart. He wasn't quite sure how it work with someone that was flesh and bone, but he didn't exactly have many other options.

He looked back up to Wind, who was hovering uncertainly nearby. She gave him a curious glance. _"Sandy?"_

"Yep!" Jack set aside his staff, picked up his sister and draping the cloak back on her as he spoke. "He's the best chance I think of for fixing her." Red now in his arms, he grabbed his staff and grinned (albeit sheepishly) at Wind. "Any idea where he is? I kinda ditched the rest of the team by accident."

Breath gave him an incredulous look before rolling her eyes and motioning for him to follow.

.

Red was getting tired. She didn't have any idea how long she'd been trudging through the nightmare, but it didn't seem to end. "What am I doing?"

She shivered as she got clear of yet another patch of darkness with just another one ahead of her. Why was it suddenly so cold? Something caught her eye, and she turned...to see just a slight covering of frost faintly glittering off of the ground. She stared, uncomprehending. What was that doing there? Something then brushed against her shoulders and whirled around, but could see nothing different. Until she looked down.

Her cloak. It was rich red again, with weight and life to it, when just a little bit before it had seemed thin, fragile, and dull. As she looked at it, Red also heard a voice, just barely. She couldn't make out the words, but she could tell from how it sounded that it was Jack. A startled and coughed laugh burst out of her before she could help it. How in the world had Jack found and got to her?

 _You know what? I honestly don't care how actually_ , Red thought. _He's here, I'm close, I just need to make it out of here_. She turned in place, trying to see or find any way she hadn't already tried, hope surging inside her.

The nightmare didn't like that. But then again, having real hope made it the fall so much more devastating than when its sparse.

Red stumbled and cried out as the world around her changed and shifted. When it finally stopped, she found herself in the same clearing she'd been in when she'd fought Pitch. She looked around, trying to see if anything was there, and wondering why the nightmare had changed.

Looking forward again, Red froze in shock and a bit of horror. In from of her was a copy of herself. Except this one had black-gray skin and black hair on the right side of her. And while one of her eyes was Red's own warm ember color, the other was cold, solid gold.

Red took an instinctive step back. Her first thought was that the darkness on copy in front of her looked like a living scar. She also got the distinct impression that it was _her_ ; what she looked like outside of the dreamscape, out in the real world.

"Pretty close," the other her said. Red shivered, but this time, it had nothing to do with being cold. It sounded just like her.

The copy gave her a look. "That's because I _am_ you Red."

"No, you're not," Red shot back, to herself as much as the Scar. "You're some, _trick_ , some new nightmare this whole place came up with."

"I'm not a trick. I'm the _real_ you. Didn't you think that yourself when you saw me?" The Scar took a step closer. Red looked away, not wanting to answer. "I'm the one that actually realizes what's going on with us. I'm the one that's trying to face this and get out, not you, who just wants to turn away!" The Scar made to get closer, but Red pushed it away.

"No, I _was_ finding my way out. You're the once who's not letting me. You aren't real, you aren't me!"

Scar glared at her coldly. "Really? Then that means it was you who let Jack die at the lake." Red stumbled back as though the words had been a blow. A pitying smile came on Scar's face. "See? You're already trying to hide, to ignore it. And you did it back then too. So who was the one who had to break it to Ma?" Tears seemed to glisten in the copy's eyes, and Red was struggling with tears of her own.

"Get out of my head," Red said through gritted teeth. But the Scar's voice was stuck there, branded in, and another one worming into her ears too. "Get out!"

.

"Wind! You go on ahead and find Sandy! I'll stay with her!" the spirit of Winter said to Breath as he touched down with Red and set her down. Soon after they'd crossed Yenisei River in Siberia, Red had gotten more tense and started breathing harder, just enough for Jack to notice and realize the nightmare was getting worse. Concern for that and accidentally dropping her if she got worse made him decide to land.

Jack started making something with his snow, still talking to Wind. "Take this with with you," he gestured to what he was making, "and tell Sandy to follow it! After that you can go, you've helped me a lot!"

Breath started to protest, but Jack beat her to it. "No, you're not going to try going there and back," the boy gave a knowing grin. "Remember the last time you tried to get closer to him when he was working?"

He of course knew that she'd gotten overwhelmed by all the sand and had fallen asleep (and out of the sky and on top of him thanks to his dumb luck) before she got a word in edge-wise, and Wind's blush made it obvious that she remembered too.

"Done," he opened his hands, revealing an icy peregrine falcon in his palm. "Alright! This should be able to keep up with you!" Wind nodded, and shot off to the sky. "Just follow her and come back okay?" Jack lifted the bird into the air, and it winked out of sight with Wind.

He turned back to Red, worrying about the visible spread of the nightmare in her.

Evening was falling, as were the shadows, and the shrieks and howls ready for the night. Jack watched them warily, but ready. Good or bad could be coming, but there was no harm in watching for them.

.

"Why?!" The copy was yelling at her now. "I'm the one that you put out for years, the one who had to deal with telling everyone and facing them and their looks of suspicion, anger, and fear! I was the one who handled all the hurt while you hid! And then when life was finally becoming happy, instead of letting me have a taste of that, you shoved me back down, locked away until I was needed again." She came up to Red, looking at her face and in the eye. "So, tell me Red, _why_?"

Red didn't answer the question, trying to prove herself wrong. "I did face something," _You're being weak_ , the other, rough voice said. "the two kids, I-"

"You died. You failed. You did that then, and you're doing it now here."

 _You were helpless._

She was stumbling around in the dark. "No I'm not- I mean, _didn't_ -"

"Then why are you here?!"

 _Couldn't do anything._

"Just stop!" Red was at her knees, arms wrapped around herself as shook with the effort of trying not to listen the nightmare her or the other voice that both seemed bent on destroying her. It hurt.

But the two just forged on.

"Red," Scar was kneeling next to her, faking gentleness. "What are you possibly hoping to gain from all this?"

She shook her head, trying to ignore her. "Jack, I'm supposed to help him. He's out there! I just-"

 _He can't help you._

"He's out there?" her copy's voice was dripping with pity and pain. "Is he? Really?"

 _He is. Right?_ Red focused, trying to feel, hear, or see any sign of Jack or his frost. But the chill, the patch, and his voice...she couldn't find them. Was she alone again?

"How can you help him if you can't help us? _Yourself_?" Red didn't know how to answer. "Admit it," the Scar said. "you can't, you don't know how. You're powerless to do anything, helpless."

 _But that's not what scares you..._

 _What? Of course that's what scares me,_ Red thought, trying to hold herself together and to cut off anything the other voice was saying.

"Just let go..."

 _"No, I can't!"_

 _What scares you most,_

"I can make the pain leave,"

She was shaking.

 _It was that you had a chance-_

"Stop, _please_ just stop, go away!"

"Just stop trying, you're failing."

 _And you didn't take it._

At those words, a hopeless sob tore out of her. The ground unsteady, she curled inward. How could these things be so cruel, so easily shredding her until she was raw and broken? The rough words felt like a knife digging into her heart.

 _You were getting out, but you let this monster get to you, and now you're losing the fight._

Her other self was saying more, but she didn't want to listen, she didn't want more poison. Why were they still here? _"Just go!"_

The rough voice came back, sounding just as broken and hushed in despair as Red; seeming to mimic her as it came.

 _Can't you see me?_

Another twist of the knife. No one could see her, she didn't matter. It was a taunt that was trying to bring her down.

Tears streamed down the Hood's face as she realized that it was all working. She wanted this to be over. To just be gone.

.

Jack was frantic.

He was still with Red, waiting for Sandy to get there, and he could just see the little guy's cloud, and the snow creature he'd sent racing down to him.

But "just" wasn't enough. Red was fading. For real.

The process of the Nightmare was slow before, when he could tell she was fighting back. But suddenly the darkness was spreading hard and fast, eager even, like something had finally crumbled. And Jack could think of only one thing it could be to turn the tables so fast.

His sister no longer believed in herself.

" _Please_ ," the cold boy whispered, talking to Red, Manny, the air, anything. He was bowed over the girl, shaking, holding back tears and a death-grip on his staff. " _please_ help her. Don't make me see this again. Not when we're this close..."

The black was almost covering her face, and there were no signs of it slowing.

He shook his head, not wanting, _not going_ to believe it. The boy looked up at the shapes gradually getting closer. He pushed himself up straight, and went forward; he'd be ready for Sandy as soon as he was there and for what ever way he could help.

Behind him, a dark creature, not completely solid, slipped out of the trees it had been in nearby. It curled around the girl on the ground, closed it's eyes, and vanished.

.

 _Can't you see me?_ The question echoed in her head, just like how the voice of the other version of her was. Red no longer knew if she was screaming or crying, just that she was lost and going insane from all that was going on inside of her, clawing and tearing for attention. All kinds of things brushed by her, things of darkness and Nightmares, furthering the madness, including a ghostly touch of something bristled, not quite soft.

Then a howl split the air. It was quiet and piercing, even a little bit rough. She felt that bristled, softish feeling press against her again, for firm and real this time as she noticed it. Everything slowed for a moment - or was it more like it woke her a bit? Something warm, wet, and definitely _there_ brushed against her hand. It was sudden enough that the tortured girl's eyes flew open as she coughed with the release, reeling.

And saw her savior. Ten times larger than before. Amber eyes now tinted red, similar to hers. The fur was darker, like it'd been stained by shadows as well as the treacherous sludge that had mottled it years ago.

" _Tar_?" Red croaked, unable to believe it. The giant wolf's eyes seemed to brighten, and it moved closer. Tenderly. That caught Red by surprise, and she took a closer look at the huge version of her friend. Once she did, she could see little bits of black sand and crusted reddish-brown all over his coat.

 _Oh._

She would've cried if she'd had any tears left. He was what held nightmares at bay when she'd battled Pitch, and it was him that she'd seen before she went unconscious. Tar had been that thing in the woods that always looked out for her, protecting her, taking the hits. It hadn't been her stupid cloak that always seemed to save her. It had been Tar. Somehow he'd come back with her all those years ago, and she had't even known he was there the entire time.

Distantly she could hear the other her yelling: "Get...-way...sh-'s mine!" and she could feel invisible nails raking at her like the Scar was next to her. She almost whimpered. Was he just another trick? Another way to torment her? Make her realize how pathetic and terrible she was? The nails became more solid as she started to slip away again.

The wolf lunged forward without warning, giant muzzle thrust against the girl in urgency. The rest of the creature surged upward, and then they were running with terrifying force, and she struggled to hold on to him, the one thing that felt real in this terrible space.

As she thought that, her hands digging further into his coat as the Scar's scathing words warred at her ears, Red more felt than heard that rough voice she'd realized had been Tar.

 _She's wrong._

A scene formed behind her shut eyes at the words, one that Red easily marked as a memory from her recent experience. But she soon found that is wasn't one of hers as it played out. It was one of Tar's.

She could feel the sense of running and hunger, following smells of food rapidly getting stronger, too desperate to take notice of the bitter sent underneath it all. Taking a leap past needles and leaves, paws ready to hit more ground but instead landing in a pit with a strange liquid heaver and more difficult to move in than a rushing river.

The young wolf yelped, the world blurring with colors, sights, and sounds and then disappearing as the evil sludge slid over; sealing eyes, nose, and ears shut, clogging the throat, slowing movement to almost nothing. The terrified feeling that this would be where he would stay as his body began to burn from the inside out, no escape.

Feeling a tremor run through the place, and something grabbing. Trying to fight, but couldn't move; helpless. The rush of going up, and the stuff giving away. Something hard against his nose, smelling, then the stuff rubbed from his eyes, seeing. A girl struggling in the black, the one holding him, face scared, anxious, determined. Saying something as she pulled up. Barley hearing sound with free ears, the word _tar_ over and over as the girl worked to saved him.

One with brown eyes, and red cloak in the background.

Red's eyes had opened in wonder, and as the vision faded away, found herself staring at Tar with the feeling and thought he'd had at the end of the memory still lingering in her mind.

She'd been a hero in his eyes.

Yes, when she'd done that she'd been scared. Terrified even, after everything that happened at the lake. Since that day, she'd never thought she could live up to Jack sacrifice for her; nevermind his example. Whether or not it was true, she'd felt like she had failed Jack and let him die, and never felt she could wash her hands clean enough to ever have the life or responsibility of anything else in them again.

So when she'd heard that tiny yelp and turned in time to see the small wolf plummet into a vat a tar for tarpaper and healing trees, she'd hesitated, unsure if _she_ could do something to save it. It wasn't until after she realized no one else had noticed that Roux managed to make herself try, to shrug off her cloak and leap into the tar unburdened except her mind to save the creature.

As herself, Red had seen it as a moment of panic. But through Tar, she could see it had been a moment of courage.

 _She's wrong,_ Tar had said.

And it wasn't until now, from seeing his memory and now his fiercely earnest face, that Red could finally find it in herself to see that he was right. The Scar had lied when she'd said that Red was never the one that faced her problems; that they were two different beings, and that the Scar was the better, truer half. The moment of jumping into the vat to save Tar in spite of her fear, moving her past them and her crippling doubts and risking herself in the process proved that much.

The Scar had really been nothing more than a nightmare, however twisted and savage it had been to her.

 _Wait, what happened to it?_

Red turned around, and could see the warped copy of herself some distance away, on her knees, face set in fury and hatred with tears steaming down her face. With Tar beside her and belief in herself building back up, Red felt an unexpected pang a pity for the form in front of her. She had been that person once; alone and full of nothing but despair, self-hatred, and powerlessness. And with knowing her own past along with her time here, there was one thing she could do.

She walked over to the figure, knelt down, and hugged her even as it hissed and cursed at her. She poured into the thing the comfort and forgiveness she'd needed all along to finally be able to let it go.

.

Sandy made it down to where Jack and Red were. He hardly needed Jack's quick explanation of what happened to know what he was going to ask. He gently raised a hand, showing as plainly as he could to the boy that he understood.

He turned his attention to the girl. To the all too familiar black that had spread over her but seemed to have stopped. But what really concerned him was the pure void at her wrist, and whether or not the girl had the will to come back.

He got to work.

.

Red's arms were trembling, her right one was getting warm. She hissed in shock and pain as it began to burn while the Scar in her embrace scattered into dreams.

Disoriented and stumbling, Red turned, gritting her teeth and blindly reaching out and searching for Tar as a fire erupted and spread under her skin. Her hand finally managed to find him, but passed through him like he wasn't completely there. He let out a strange howl-bark sound, and she couldn't tell of what. Excitement? But why?

He suddenly lunged at her, and she stepped away, shocked. A blinding bolt of light flashed in her mind as she did so, and Red stumbled away from it. She looked back at her friend, ready to ask what was going on, but stopped.

Tar was looking right at her, something glinting in his eyes that made Red take a step back even as the weird light made her wince with pain. It wasn't that something in the look hinted at a monster inside him, but it made her wary for some reason. Suddenly, Red wondered how exactly Tar was here, and if he was what inspired the "big bad wolf."

"Tar...?" She tried to take a side-step around him, away from the blistering light making her whole self throb. But Tar was having none of it. He took a prowling step forward, the thing in his eyes sharpening as a low sound of warning came from his throat.

 _Wait, why did I think_ prowl _?_

Then all at once, it clicked.

 _It's not the look of a monster_ , Red realized as her blood ran cold, _it's the look of a predator giving chase_.

He lunged at her again, and she bolted. Guilt and shame welled up inside her as she ran from her friend, the one that rescued her from the nightmare. When she tried to change direction to keep the light from burning her, he snapped at her. The teeth closed inches from her face, and she flinched as the light pulsed again and as she felt a twinge of terror in her heart. Why was he doing this?

Red caught the pain and guilt in his eyes as she thought that, and she realized she'd said it out loud.

Tar bowed his head, before swinging it back up and letting loose a howl. It was the same sound as before, but now to effect was directed toward her. All of the sudden, Red was hit with a terrible surge of instincts and understanding.

Tar was the big-bad-wolf. Not because he was a monster, but because he was the force that drove them away. He could help her when no one else could - not even Jack - because he was actually in this place with her to help get her. He was helping her, _warning_ her, that the nightmare was gone but that it wasn't over. She needed to get out of here now, get to the light, before the darkness could close on her forever. And Red somehow knew with terrifying certainty that he was right.

It was over in a second, and Tar gave her another look, this one a question. A challenge. Red could only nod before running again, this time with Tar.

She ran toward the light, then blind as the fire flared to her face, blocking him from view with a warm light filled and blocked her vision of anything else.

As her world was filled with searing, golden pain.

* * *

 _ **So yes, there are some changes here, but nothing super big or story-altering. It was mostly so that I could better emphasize how important Tar is in this part of the story; that he's a real character.**_

 ** _Thanks for all the support you've given, chapter 5 should come around soon!_**


	5. Chapter 5

Spirits of any sort hated feeling powerless.

Jack Frost stood a couple steps away from his sister, letting Sandy work his magic to try and bring her back. But there didn't seem to be any change, even as dreamsand swirled around Red.

That too familiar sense of un-feeling, the one that spoke of accepted hopelessness from centuries of being invisible, gnawed at him. It would be easy to let that feeling take away the wrenching ache in his heart like he used to, but he wasn't the same person he used to be. He wasn't going to look away, no matter the frozen tears in his eyes. He wasn't going to run, no matter what might come from the cloaked figure in front of him.

The Sandman was floating just above the ground, the girl's infected wrist clasped between his two hands, the picture of patience and help except for the furrowed brow on his face and the ropes of sand the waved and snapped with each failed attempt to restore what had once been. He'd known there was the chance that she wouldn't choose to come back, or that she was simply too far gone to do so. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have been the first time it happened.

He felt the forces inside the Hood shift, and his brow furrowed a little deeper. _But that never changed how hard I try_ , the little man thought as he silently manipulated the dreams again to break through the sunken darkness coiling inside the girl.

The whips suddenly shrank back and away from the form in front of them, so entangled in magic there was almost nothing else, before quickly fading away.

Frost stared at the newly emptied space. He felt chilled to the bone, more so then he had been before or after he became the embodiment of winter. He glanced at the Sandman, a look stillness etched unto his face while shock and dread filled his eyes...

...and then confusion when he saw a slow smile crossing Sandy's face. At least until he realized where the sand was going.

Red's wrist was slowly becoming lighter as the dreamsand started easing in to chase the shadows out. It continued to spread up her arm, across her face, and filtering through her hair, efficiently pooling into every space the darkness once had hold over her before lingering there.

The light was soft, and Red had been so still that both Guardians were caught off guard when she screamed.

Some other force sent a ripple through the air as her back suddenly arced like it'd been shot with electricity. An unearthly, mutilated shriek ripped out of her. Then she lurched forward, coughing and retching as black sand poured and rolled off her in waves before burning away into smoke.

Jack was there in an instant, but he stopped himself just short and reaching her. Was there even a way for him to help right now?

After some time Red finally stopped, seeming to slump back into herself. When she looked up, it was still sooner then Jack was ready for.

Both of them went stiff at the sight of the other before looking away, both unsure how to act, unsure about what the other might or might not know, or what to say without showing how much more they knew than they used to.

.

Sandy hovered in the background, watching the pair. Jack had mentioned the Red-Riding-Hood was his sister, and now ,as they both wore twin looks (even if they were of uncertainty) he could see the resemblance. He'd been around enough to realize that a situation like this was something he should not interfere with. The shadowed wolf seemed to realize this too, as he stayed behind some of the tree cover. Sandy had come to respect the creature over time, as it helped kids get out of nightmares when he couldn't get there. He gave a nod of appreciation (for both he and Jack Frost he felt) to the wolf, and got a small toss of its head in acknowledgement.

.

 _Does he know?_ Thought Red. _Who he is, who I am? I mean, I'd think that what made me remember would do the same for him...and why else would he be here? Could it have just been coincidence and he doesn't know?_

 _What am I supposed to do? I'm not just her friend Frosty anymore, I'm her brother and she's my sister._ Jack thought furiously. _But she doesn't know that and I don't want to scare her, not with everything she must have been through..._

 _What do I do?_

Maybe it was because she had more reason to think he already knew, or maybe it was because she felt she'd been through the worst she ever could be, Red went first.

Hesitantly, she brought her eyes up to see Frost. He seemed just as out-of-place as she did. Finally, she made herself talk before she could loss her nerve, fingers fidgeting with her cloak. "Jack?..."

His eyes snapped to hers, unreadable expect for how intense they were. Red's breath hitched, her fingers worrying the fabric more. Was she wrong?

His mind raced. _Did I hear that right?_ The way she said that word was familiar, and in more ways than one. Yes, it was the same voice he first heard from his memories, but the way she said it made it sound like the name was more familiar to her then before. He looked at Red, surprised, then guilty as she shrunk slightly away, nervous.

Jack knew he was grasping at straws, he knew that he could be taking too much out of a single word, he knew that Red might not even know the power behind that word and how she'd said it, but something told him that it wasn't the case.

He decided to show his little sis that he did know, and to see if she remembered too. So tossing cation aside, he said the name that he hadn't said aloud for three-hundred years. "Roux."

Red blinked, like she'd been expecting him to say something else. But the look was wiped away as a relieved and dumbstruck grin spread on her face . "Jack! Wait, what? So- you remember?" She tried to say more, but the words caught in her throat. Finally she just settled for laughing as she wiped tears from her eyes. _This is ridiculous!_ she thought. _I really am happy, so why am I crying?_

"Oh, of course not, I just felt like saying a random french girl name for kicks." Jack deadpanned. "Of course I remember you knucklehead!" He'd tried to be nonchalant, but he broke out in a shaky laugh. He could finally feel his own tears coming out, and he hurriedly wiped them away; not realizing they just turned to frost over his face.

His sister did though, and she just laughed all the harder, Jack joining in once she managed to gasp out why.

Then they were in each other's arms, still laughing and crying, two souls finally reunited after far too long.

The near-forgotten Sandman joined in, having abandoned his sentry-like position in favor of witnessing the crazy predicament Frost had put his face into, Tar not far behind with a bark-type sound that sounded decidedly like he was snickering. There was a quick round of surprise at the wolf and explanation about him that quickly turned into a sharing of everyone's stories from the start of the whole adventure not even a day before.

And far above in the sky, and moon seemed to wink at the group below.

.

 _Epilogue: Months later..._

 _The first snow of the winter was always an exciting day, one that children over the world looked forward to, hardly able to wait long enough to get home from school to go diving into the first biting snow of the cooler seasons. Through it all, two spirits in particular joined in._

 _"Ready to make their day Frosty?" said a red-cloaked girl, ember eyes glancing up at her companion in the tree above her._

 _The boy scoffed, shoving the hood of a blue hoodie of his head to show spiky white hair, to look the girl in the face. "I think I already did, but I don't see any harm in making it even more."_

 _They looked up as kids hastily bundled in coats and gloves came running out of houses and to the perfect-packing white outside._

 _The boy heaved a mock sigh. "'Ya think we're too old to play kid games Roux?"_

 _She laughed, pushing her own hood away from her face to see him better. "Has it ever stopped you before?"_

 _A smirk. "Of course not!"_

 _"Then let's get going!"_

The two them jumped into the crowd, running among the kids. Some gasped in shock as the two ageless teens joined in, while others didn't seem to notice as the duo wound through the throng.

In the thick of it, Jack magically made countless snowballs for the kids (and himself) to use, laughing as the girl shouted "no fair!" and called him a cheater.

Red got back at him by sucker-punching him with hand-made snowballs, and by helping kids red-faced with snow-to-the-face and excitement to get back up.

Over everyone, winds would suddenly send snowballs of course with a cross breeze or snow gear away or into faces, providing perfect opportunities for ambush.

Any kids that tried to get close to the nearby forest or the road would come back swearing up and down that a wolf had told them not to got here, and then challenge them to a race back to the other kids.

All around the spirits ran, helped, and played until it was time for the children to get to bed for the Sandman. And among the others, the brother and sister pair worked together.

Jack Frost and Red Riding Hood.

Cold and Warmth.

Fun and Comfort.

The End

* * *

 **And that's a wrap for** _ **Little Red's Guardian! Again, thanks to all the readers who waited for this story to its end through infrequent updates. Happy (upcoming) holidays! ~TalaAzar**_


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